1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to board games and, more particularly, to a three dimensional board game having a plurality of game pieces comprising indicia to associate a set of game pieces as either belonging to a single game player or as belonging to no game player, and a series of predefined movements associated with each game piece for allowing three dimensional movement of the game pieces on the multiple horizontal levels of the three dimensional game board structure.
2. Description of the Background
Board games have been a measure of entertainment and challenge for centuries. From the origins of the popular game of chess circa 500-700 A.D. to the present, players have often sought to devise new, more interesting, and more challenging ways of modifying board games to provide for a more stimulating gaming experience.
Many players have sought to develop three dimensional board games in an attempt to expand the gaming experience and the player's analysis of gaming moves into multi-planar geometries. While efforts to develop such three dimensional gaming have proceeded, the resulting products are often embodied in games having highly complex rules, multiple game pieces, and complicated structures which so complicate the game process that any added entertainment value is outweighed by the added difficulty in attempting to carry out a gaming session. Thus, the prior art has been unable to address the need for a multi-player, three dimensional game that appropriately balances the need for increased intellectual stimulation and the ability to develop a player's skills of three dimensional spatial analysis, against the need to maintain the enjoyment and leisure intended in playing a recreational game.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,684,285 to Kane discloses a four level chess game configured for play by two opponents, each of which uses a set of eight pawns, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, one queen, and one king, with four of the pawns of each set being marked to distinguish them from other pawns. The allowable movements of each of the chess pieces closely approximate the moves of the same pieces in a traditional chess game.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,283 to La Ferla et al. discloses a multilevel game board comprising five triangular-shaped horizontal boards of varying sizes. The game rules provide for the movement of game pieces (belonging to each of two players) in straight line movements, allowing the "capture" (or removal from game play) of opposing pieces by "jumping" over the opposing player's game piece in a single move. To accomplish such a "capture," the opposing player's piece must lie in a playing position immediately adjacent to the moving player's game piece, with an open space on the other side of the opposing player's game piece.
Further, U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,817 to Johnson discloses a three-dimensional game board comprising three vertically spaced planes, each of which are divided into thirteen squares. The game rules provide for the "non-capturing" movement of game pieces to adjacent horizontal squares in the same horizontal plane, and to adjacent (non-diagonal) squares in the immediately adjacent vertical plane. The game rules also provide for "capturing" movement, whereby a moving player may capture an opposing player's game piece by jumping over that piece from an adjoining space and landing in a vacant space on the opposite side of the captured piece, and then moving to an adjoining vacant space.
Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,917 to Greene discloses a three-dimensional chess game comprising eight game boards arranged in vertical relation to one another. Each player is provided a standard set of chess game pieces, along with an additional set of eight pawn pieces. Players take turns as in traditional chess moving their pieces across the game board surface, with movements being limited to a single horizontal or vertical move in any turn, such that in any one move a piece cannot be moved both up or down and fore or aft.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,805 to Neil et al. discloses a three-dimensional game comprising multiple tiered levels, each level defining a grid. The game also comprises an electronic number generator which generates numbers which in turn relate to particular grid positions on the game board surface. The game rules provide for awarding points to players who configure their game pieces in particular predefined configurations, and for "disrupting" any player's configuration (i.e., removing one of the moving player's game pieces from the game board) when any part of that configuration falls on a grid position that has been selected by the number generator.
Still further, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,419 to Craig discloses a three-dimensional board game comprising three or four boards stacked on top of one another with each board divided into a three by three grid of squares. The game is played by two or more players, each player using game pieces identified with that player by color or shape. The goal is for a player to complete the formation of three lines each with three pieces in a line, whether diagonal, vertical, or horizontal. One of each player's pieces is designated a "star" piece, which is the only piece that may be placed in the center square of the intermediate horizontal boards.
Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,040 to Cutler discloses a three-dimensional chess game played on a four by four by four cubic chessboard by two players, each of whom uses a standard sixteen piece chess set. Each piece is assigned a movement which is a three-dimensional extension analogous to that piece's movement in two-dimensional chess.
Unfortunately, none of the prior art three dimensional games have been able to achieve a three-dimensional board game that may be played by two or more players which achieves an effective balance of the need for increased intellectual stimulation and the ability to develop a player's skills of three dimensional spatial analysis, against the need to maintain the enjoyment and leisure intended in playing a recreational game.